You dont have to be a rocket scientist to understand the fascinating physics behind space exploration.
Its (Just) Rocket Science delivers on a bold promise: spaceflight isnt just for engineers or physicists. Science writer Trisha Muro introduces readers to the physics principles behind how rockets, satellites, and space telescopes reach their destinations by making the science behind these technological marvels both meaningful and accessible.
Muro untangles the concepts and calculations that make space exploration possible. Addressing a handful of core topics—including motion, forces, waves, and energy—each section demonstrates how to see physics at work in easy-to-understand explanations. Chapters center on the challenges faced by real spaceflight missions, such as Voyagers deep space dispatches, the James Webb Space Telescopes distant perch beyond the Moon, and DARTs asteroid-deflecting impact, while connecting the physics behind these missions to readers daily lives. Muro introduces essential physics concepts and makes abstract principles tangible through true stories of human ingenuity and cosmic ambition.
Covering topics such as orbits, gravity, momentum, light, and relativity, this book explains the surprising science behind familiar headlines, like: How do missions like Psyche use a gravitational slingshot to reach their destinations? Why does the Webb telescope orbit a million miles away from Earth? How do we land rovers like Perseverance safely on Mars? Whether readers are seasoned stargazers or hesitant explorers, Its (Just) Rocket Science invites you to see the science behind space exploration —and recognize how those missions connect back to us.
Trisha Muro is a freelance science writer and former high school physics teacher who has written for OpenMind Magazine, NOIRLab, and Science News Explores.
Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction I. Whats Got You Down? (Lets Talk About Gravity) 1. How to Find an Exoplanet: TESS and the Geometry of Orbits 2. A Seemingly Magical Orbit: JWST and Gravitation 3. From a Relativistic Point of View: Hubble and Relativity 4. Initial Conditions: Voyager and Our Place in Space II. Lets GO 5. We Are Go For Launch! Sounding Rockets and the Physics of Launch 6. To Mars We Go: Perseverance and the Physics of Orbit 7. A Balance of Forces: Dragonfly and Newtons Laws Interlude - The Speed You Need, Part 1: Orbits III. Theres No Free Lunch, But There Might be Some Tasty Snacks 8. To Shift a Space Rock: DART and the momentum of collisions 9. Gravitational Slingshots: Psyche and angular momentum 10. Spaceflights Not-Quite-Free Lunch: Apollo and Conservation of Energy Interlude - The Speed You Need, Part 2: Escape IV. Rockets Cant Surf, But They Still Need Waves 11. How to Phone Home From Space: the Deep Space Network and waves 12. Beyond the Rainbow: DAVINCI and the electromagnetic spectrum 13. Seeing the Unseeable: Chandra and optics V. Look Deeper, and Dream On 14. Sailing on Starlight: Two Solar Sail Spacecraft and Photon physics 15. Spaceflight, Differently: Solar Electric Propulsion Reframes the Rocket Equation 16. Doing the Impossible: Parker Solar Probe and Radiation VI. Appendices 17. The Metric System 18. The Math of Gravity, Once More Afterword Notes on Sources Bibliography
You dont have to be a rocket scientist to understand the fascinating physics behind space exploration.
Its (Just) Rocket Science provides an accessible introduction of key features of space travel that will interest both aspiring and amateur scientists. Trisha Muros training in both rocketry and teaching high school are apparent in her debut book. In it, she regales us with the principles underlying the physics of space travel, primarily through an enjoyable narrative, and seasoning the tale only occasionally with the tiniest hint of basic algebra.
—Don Lincoln, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab)
Its (Just) Rocket Science utilizes excellent storytelling weaved with examples of rocketry to which the reader can easily visualize and relate. This is a great book for anyone interested in knowing a little more about space science while having little-to-no technical background.
—Erin MacDonald, Star Trek Science Advisor
Its (Just) Rocket Science explains all the delightful bits of math and physics that have propelled humans and our technology throughout the solar system. It is a joy, a thrill to read! This is the math and physics book—and the teacher—we all wish wed had.
—Laura Helmuth, former editor in chief of Scientific American
